12th Fulfox treatment today

Chelsea71 said:

Hi Judy. To be honest I felt
Hi Judy. To be honest I felt sick when I read your post. I too am really confused. Steve was on Avastin for the first 8 chemos. Discontinued due to blood clots. His cancer is in his liver too. First scan showed a lot of shrinkage. (while on avastin). Second scan (no avastin) was last week. Minor shrinkage and possibly progression in one tumor. I asked the onc (major cancer centre) if the change in response could be due to the discontinuation of avastin. She said she really did not think so. She feels avastin plays a small role. She said, "It just of stabilizes the cancer". This surprised me. She also gave me an unrelated (to avastin) piece of information which I have since learned is not true. We have a really good rapport with her. We like her. I'm starting to think she doesn't know what the hell she is talking about and I am not sure what to do about it. I guess I have two issues. I am worried about Steves liver tumors growing. His surgeon is trying to figure out what to do next. Second issue is I have little confidence in the onc. Wondering what others think about the importance of Avastin.

Chelsea

It's very worrisome and frustrating. I will be eight weeks without the avastin. My doctor said to my son yesterday how rare it is for someone to be this far into tx and be responding and looking and being so active. I'm back at school full-time and it's been great. I am feeling great. I really think the alternative I have been taking in addition to the regular chemo tx has helped. I feel selfish for having the colostomy reveral in June because it is elective (I could keep the colostomy) but I really feel it's time for the colostomy to go. If I wait til later, I'll miss more school, and I want to start out the next school year ready to go. So I am going ahead with the surgery.

Judy

Chelsea71 said:

Follow your gut. I think you
Follow your gut. I think you should be fine going without Avastin for eight weeks. It's not really all that long. What is the plan for your liver? Will a resection be possible at some point?

Chelsea

Right now things in my liver keep shrinking. I am going to go with the reversal. My oncologist, a few tx back, didn't think surgery would be necessary. He and I will talk more about that mid summer. My Pet scan from three weeks ago showed that my liver tumors had shrunk a lot (compared to December, yikes!). There was nothing in my colon or anywhere else. So, my next tx will be without avastin, then the next treatment weekend is my surgery (that Monday), so I won' t have my tx. Two weeks after that I resume treatment, minus avastin again, then two weeks after I resume avastin. But, like I said, I will keep going with my alternative also. So I feel really positive about it. Thank you for your input, Chesea!!! I hope all is well with you. Oh, I read that Avastin can stay in your system for many days after you take it. So I feel I have that going for me, also!!!

Judy